Former NH Reporter Accused Of Placing Camera In Bathroom Released On Bail

MANCHESTER, NH (CBS) – Conor Makem was a longtime reporter for the Rochester Times until his arrest this week. He is accused of placing a camera inside the second-floor women’s bathroom of a Rochester office building where the newspaper rented office space.

“For these poor women that have been violated, I think it’s terrible,” said Greg Froton, who works in the building. “I think it’s sad that in this day and age we have to put up with this. The bathrooms are all locked and we think we can trust people we work with in the building.”

Several women who work in the building were not comfortable speaking about the case as they do not yet know if they may have been caught on camera.

Patrice Foster, the president and publisher of Foster’s Daily Democrat, which publishes the Times, said in part, “We are shocked and surprised by the events of the last week pertaining to our part-time reporter Conor Makem…Our main concern is for the well-being of our staff and those that might have been affected.”

The incident puts the newspaper in the unenviable position of covering one of its own, even snapping a photo of Makem’s arrest. He has been fired from his job and he is charged with 12 misdemeanor counts of invasion of privacy and one felony count of falsifying evidence.

“We have not collected the camera and that’s the reason for the falsifying physical evidence, we’re alleging that he destroyed the evidence,” said Capt. Paul Toussaint with the Rochester Police Department.

But police say they did find images on the computers seized from his office and his home.

A woman at the home declined to speak to WBZ-TV today.

Makem, 44, is free on bail and will be arraigned in November.

He had been with the newspaper for 10 years and was a good reporter according to Rod Doherty, executive editor of Foster’s.

So far police have only identified one woman on camera from the women’s bathroom, and they are still in the process of reviewing the evidence to identify other victims.